The use of credit cards in consumer transactions is well known in the art. A credit card is defined as an account card issued by a specific bank or financial institution for the purpose of purchasing goods and services on credit provided by the bank or financial institution. Credit cards typically have a preset spending limit and specific terms regarding payment terms, interest rates, grace periods, and other terms and conditions. However, the credit card itself does not contain any information other than the account number. In order to complete a transaction, the credit card account number is read from the card, sent to the bank or financial institution for verification of account and charge authorization, and returned to the vendor with approval for the transaction to proceed. The transaction process can be time consuming when the transaction occurs during peak purchasing periods or when the transaction takes place in a foreign country. The transaction may be stopped entirely if the vendor is unable to establish communications with the bank. Moreover, credit cards apply to a single account. In other words, the bank or financial institution must issue one credit card to the consumer for every account, requiring the consumer to carry multiple credit cards when the consumer has more than one account. Therefore, a need exists for a credit card that can be used for multiple accounts.
Debit cards are also well known in the art. With a debit card the consumer spends money already deposited in an account, rather than creating a credit account that will be paid at some later time. Debit cards are frequently used with deposit accounts such as checking, savings, and money market accounts. Unfortunately, like credit cards, debit cards card only contain a single account number. The vendor must still authorize the transaction through a communications network in order for the transaction to proceed, and the debit card can only be used for transactions with a single account. Therefore, a need exists for a debit card that can be used for multiple accounts.
A smartcard is one solution to the problems encountered with traditional credit and debit cards. A smartcard is a card, sized similarly to a credit card, which contains a processor and a memory. A smartcard is more advantageous than a credit card in that the smartcard can store and update account information within the smartcard memory. Storing and updating the account information within the smartcard memory is advantageous because charge authorization can be obtained directly from the card itself rather than through communications with the bank or financial institution. Moreover, because the smartcard has the ability to store and update information, one smartcard can contain information regarding a plurality of accounts. The ability of the smartcard to store account information on a plurality of accounts eliminates the need for the consumer to carry a plurality of cards. Instead, the consumer can carry one smartcard that contains account information for the user's checking, savings, money market, and credit accounts.
Moreover, smartcards contain additional flexibility because a user can add various applications onto their smartcard. One example of an application for a smartcard is a health care application. In a health care application, a smartcard may contain the user's heath insurance information so that the user's doctor can scan the smartcard and receive the patient's updated medical and insurance information, thereby streamlining the information exchange between the doctor, the patient, and the insurer. A similar application can be added to the smartcard for prescription drugs so that the doctor can use the card to know the status of the user's prescriptions.
Another example of an application is an airline frequent flyer application. In the frequent flyer application, the smartcard contains the user's frequent flyer information such as the account number, mileage balance, status level, and so forth. When the user purchases air travel with the smartcard, the frequent flyer information is automatically connected to the travel information, streamlining the exchange of information between the user and the airline.
However, the combination of a plurality of accounts and applications on a single smartcard creates new problems that were not previously encountered with credit or debit cards. One of these problems is efficient organization and maintenance of the accounts and applications on the smartcard. Smartcard users need to be able to add, modify, update, and delete accounts and applications as needed. Therefore, a need exists for an efficient method of organizing and maintaining accounts and applications associated with a smartcard.
The problem of smartcard management has been addressed by the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,246 (the '246 patent) entitled “Smartcard Adapted for a Plurality of Service Providers and for Remote Installation of Same” discloses a method of organizing and limiting access to the files installed within a smartcard. U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,762 B1 (the '762 patent) entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Dynamic Smartcard Synchronization and Personalization” discloses an account maintenance system for a smartcard. What is needed beyond the '246 patent and the '762 patent is a method for organizing a plurality of accounts and applications associated with a smartcard.
Consequently, a need exists in the art for a method for organizing accounts and applications associated with a smartcard. Furthermore, a need exists for a method for adding, deleting, updating, and modifying accounts and applications associated with a smartcard. The need extends to an apparatus for implementing the aforementioned methods.